


Stage Three: Bargaining

by Froggydog



Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst, Dead TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Gen, Mentioned Dream SMP Ensemble, Mentioned TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Sad Toby Smith | Tubbo, Scared Toby Smith | Tubbo, Traumatized Toby Smith | Tubbo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-17 07:22:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29838072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Froggydog/pseuds/Froggydog
Summary: Tubbo comes to Dream, well into his grief over Tommy's death, ready to strike a deal.(One-shot.)
Relationships: Clay | Dream & Toby Smith | Tubbo, Clay | Dream & Toby Smith | Tubbo & TommyInnit, No Romantic Relationship(s), Toby Smith | Tubbo & TommyInnit
Comments: 2
Kudos: 61





	Stage Three: Bargaining

**Author's Note:**

> Be aware that this is all from Dream's prospective! ;D

The lava wall, he had said once during construction, was not just for the visitor’s protection. It was for the prisoner’s, too.

Dream mused on the idea internally, flicking the dried blood out of his fingernails. He could practically feel the malice approaching before they even spoke a word to him. Someone wanted him dead, and badly. After what he’d done, he would not have been surprised if half of the server was there on the other end of the lava wall, calling for his death.

Dream smiled lazily. He had all the cards in his hands. The revival book, his lifeline, made him untouchable. Tommy was dead for now, laying in the corner of his cell, but he had no intention of keeping him that way, so he simply waited for his exit ticket. He didn’t have to wait for long.

“Dream.”

The man cocked his head in surprise. Out of all the people on the server, one he had not expected was the pawn. Sam had made sure that Tubbo would stay far, far away from the prison, and for good reason; everyone had heard about how close he had come to murdering the former president.

“Hello.” Dream called back casually.

“I’m here to negotiate.” Tubbo’s voice was unwavering. There wasn’t a hint of emotion, none of the sunny optimism nor devastation he had once heard.

“Alright, what do you want then?” Dream shouted. He knew, everyone knew. It was just out of spite that he wanted to hear Tubbo say that Tommy was dead.

Maybe, just maybe, he was still somewhat upset that his plan failed at the last minute.

“I want you to use the revival book to bring back Tommy.” Again, Tubbo’s voice was steel. Dream was almost impressed. Gone was the thin, reedy hope that he had heard during Tommy’s exile.

“Well-” Dream stood up, his spine cracking as he finally moved from his position on the obsidian floor, “you already know what I want in exchange.”

There was a heavy pause on the other side of the lava, the gentle pops of the molten liquid the backing track for their conversation.

“Well?” Dream pressured, “it’s my freedom for Tommy’s life. I think that’s more than fair.”

“Hold on, Dream.” Tubbo’s voice rang out. “Go check your food dispenser real quick.”

Puzzled, he glanced up to see a piece of laminated paper flutter down from the ceiling. It landed in the water to his side and he stooped to pick it up, flipping it over to reveal an image printed over the front. A crater, three times as large as the devastation left after Doomsday and equal the depth, tore a jagged canyon through a spruce biome, bedrock laid bare at the bottom.

His brows furrowed. “What is this?”

“That, is the first test of the nuclear missiles I’ve been working on ever since L’manburg went down.” Tubbo said neutrally, “an inspired decision, you could say. I decommissioned them for quite a while after that test.”

“What, are you threatening to bomb the prison?” Dream scoffed, “you know I’m the only one who has the revival book. If I die, Tommy’s dead forever.”

“I won’t use the nukes on the prison,” he replied, “killing you is the last thing I’m thinking of right now.”

“Then why did you-?”

Tubbo cut him off. “I’ve just been going over the day you almost murdered me for the last few days. I’ve had a lot of time alone to think about it, you know?”

Dream leaned back against the wall of his cell. Ah, the day he was going to murder Tubbo and throw Tommy in prison forever. Good times.

“And I was thinking about what you said. It’s not the Tubbo SMP, or the Tommy SMP, it’s the Dream SMP. The rest of us are just people to control. Pawns in your little game, right?”

“What’s your point?” Dream said, growing somewhat weary.

“I’m getting there,” Tubbo assured, “I had a brilliant idea a few days ago; what game is there to win, if there is no board? No pieces? So I went ahead and re-commissioned the nukes. They’re even better now. They’d take everything out, even my base.”

“What-”

“They were a preventative measure at first, actually. My ode to the language of violence, if you will, something that would threaten the entire Dream SMP and it’s citizens if you threatened me or Tommy again.” there was something almost nostalgic in Tubbo’s voice then, “but that ship has already sailed. So, I’m not bartering with your freedom, I’m bartering with the SMP, now.”

Dream’s heart rate picked up into double-time. “You wouldn’t sacrifice the entire SMP. You’re bluffing.”

“Am I?” Tubbo sounded somewhat taken aback, “tell me then, what do I have to lose if I destroy all of it? I’m really asking here: if you can find one good reason, I am all ears.”

“What about all the things you’ve built here?”

“Anything that hasn’t already been destroyed isn’t really worth much anyway.”

“The others.”

“You said it yourself, the ones who didn’t actively use me for power betrayed my country at our last moment.”

“Some of them saved you on that day.”

“The day you almost killed me? That was more about knocking you down a peg than it was about saving me.”

“You’d die.”

“Yeah. I guess I would.”

The matter-of-fact way Tubbo said it made Dream take pause. Tubbo, resigned to his fate back in the attachments room, flashed through his mind. He had dug his own grave with that one.

Tubbo filled the silence instead. “But, if you were to bring Tommy back, I couldn’t set off the nukes at all, it would put him at risk. You could always escape the prison later, now without the threat of bombing. It’s still a good deal for you.”

“I could just revive you all. Then nothing changes.” Dream pointed out.

“If Sam survives the blast somehow, maybe you could convince him to let you revive the SMP. If I were a gambling man, I’d say the only actual place you’re protected from the blast would be in your cell, isolated from the radiation fallout and the concussive damage- and I’m not even completely sure of that. You’d probably end up starving to death.”

There was a pause again, from Dream this time. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. Tubbo was supposed to come back, begging for Tommy’s revival, offering him an escape, crying over his dead best friend. Not… not this!

What was wrong with this kid?

Oh. The wars. And the manipulation. And the violence. Most of which he took part in. Did… did he slip up? Did he do this to himself?

“So I'll be honest, Dream,” Tubbo called through the lava. “I wouldn’t play this game if I were you,”

He glanced to the corner, to the limp body of Tommy, and felt sweat trace a line down his cheek. He strained to hear the next words.

“it’s one you’ll lose.”

**Author's Note:**

> So, to be clear: Tubbo has no intention to bomb the server and kill everyone. However! Dream doesn't know that he has Snowchester, the Bee n' Boo, or anything else. To Dream's knowledge, Tubbo has nothing, and so Tubbo cooked up a plan with Sam to take advantage of that.
> 
> Comments and Kudos are appreciated!


End file.
